


Living In America

by PrincessMeganFire



Category: Rent (2005)
Genre: Abuse, Angel-centric, Child Neglect, Domestic Violence, F/F, F/M, First Rent fanfic, High School AU, Junior Mark, Junior Maureen, Junior Roger, Mimi and Angel are cousins, Modern AU, Pansexual Collins, Senior April, Senior Benny, Senior Collins, Senior Joanne, Sophomore Angel, Sophomore Mimi, Transgender Angel, beatings, domestic AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-23
Updated: 2020-04-03
Packaged: 2021-03-01 00:47:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,765
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23286532
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PrincessMeganFire/pseuds/PrincessMeganFire
Summary: Mimi and Angel are cousins who have to move away from Angel’s abusive family who have kicked her out for being transgender. Time for them to join a new school and meet a new family who really love them.
Relationships: April/Roger Davis, Benjamin Coffin III/Mimi Marquez, Joanne Jefferson/Maureen Johnson, Mark Cohen/Maureen Johnson, Roger Davis/Mimi Marquez, Thomas B. Collins/Angel Dumott Schunard
Kudos: 8





	1. Notes

This is my first Rent fanfiction, so please forgive me if I mix up a couple of facts and things here and there. A couple of things are different for the purpose of this fanfiction though. For example, here are the years and ages:

Mark Cohen - Junior (18th March)  
Roger Davis - Junior (2nd December)  
Tom Collins - Senior (4th April)  
Joanne Jefferson - Senior (22nd May)  
Maureen Johnson - Junior (3rd August)  
Angel Dumott Schunard - Sophomore (11th July)  
Mimi Márquez - Sophomore (14th February)  
Benjamin Coffin III - Senior (6th October)  
April - Senior (24th September)

April isn’t really that important but since I added her in the tags I’ve added her here as well. I’ll be making up families for each of the characters since I don’t know of their own, and I might throw in an OC every now and again but I know that I personally hate reading stories with OC’s in so it’ll only be when it’s absolutely necessary.

Feedback is always appreciated, please leave kudos and comments and suggest this fanfiction to your renthead friends!


	2. A New Beginning

"Mimi! Angel! Girls, it's time for school!" Mrs Márquez called up the stairs, checking her wristwatch continuously. Though she had her sons wake the girls up two hours earlier, she was quite convinced that neither moved for the first fifteen minutes, and then the slow, early morning rising would happen wherein they would take about three years each to get ready. To be fair, if they were still in Madrid, it would be 1:30pm, so the times were still confusing everyone.

"Coming, Mama!" Mimi called out, starting to walk down the stairs. The house they'd moved to was small, smaller than the one in Madrid, but they had to move. They had no choice. Not with Alberto and Cristina López less than three blocks away. They kept finding ways to come back into Angel's life, ways to make it hell, so María and Carlos Márquez had to move everyone away, and to what better place than the big apple itself?

Mimi wore a floral green summer dress with little white flowers decorating it, with a v-neck and a black belt with a golden buckle. "Honestly Mimi, you'd think we were still in Spain!" María chuckled. "Oh, it's still warm." Mimi giggled. "I'm trying to get as much wear out of my summer clothes as possible." 

Angel appeared at the top of the staircase anxiously. Though Mimi had told her to wear her usual clothes, the ones that made her Angel, the girl couldn't quite shake what had happened back in Madrid. Never again, she'd promised herself. Never again would she put herself in a position to make life hell. And that was why she wore a plain red baggy jumper and a pair of black skinny jeans, no makeup (I like Mimi's fully covered, model-like face), no earrings, and no wig. She looked completely and utterly like a boy. Just like how Cristina and Alberto wanted her to look.

"Angel! I thought you were going to wear that black skirt we found at the mall yesterday!" Mimi pouted, watching her cousin trudge down slowly, unsurely. Yes, cousin. María was Christina's younger sister, and would not watch her own sister throw out her daughter for being transgender. It had caused a huge rift in the family, especially when Cristina found out that María had legally adopted Angel, adopted the child she'd wanted out of her life. The reason they'd moved. Nobody, not María or Carlos, not Mimi, and not Mimi's brothers Rafael, Diego, Luis, or Carlito wanted to see Angel get hurt by her family. And whilst she'd never adopted the surname Márquez, since she had no blood relation to Carlos, she'd chosen Dumott Schunard, her dear Abuelita Isabel's surname.

"I-I can't." Angel stammered, stopping on the second to last step, frowning at the high pitch of her voice. Of course, when she was being herself, she did purposely make it higher, but it was pretty high in general anyway. Maybe because she'd been faking it for years and it stuck, or maybe she was just born with it. Maybe it's a gay person thing (that's one she's heard before). Except she wasn't gay. She was straight. Because she's a girl. Not a boy. But today - she couldn't take any chances. Today, Angel is a boy, just like her school files and medical files say. That way neither the teachers or Angel herself would have to worry. Angel more than the teachers, though.

Mimi sighed and pulled Angel down the last step. "Let's go before we miss the bus." She said, pulling on a pair of black ankle boots and passing Angel a pair of Carlito's too small Adidas trainers, the ones Angel always wore when she wasn't being herself. 

With María pushing them out the door, Mimi and Angel said their goodbyes before tearing down the street, just about realising how late they actually were. As soon as they reached the bus stop they ran onto the already parked bus, sighing with relief (and the fact that they were out of breath) as they sank into one of the pairs of front row seats. 

"Thank God, I almost thought you weren't going to make it." The duo turned sideways to see a smart-looking dark-skinned girl beside a pretty girl with curly brown hair. Angel wished she had hair like that. It was the dark-skinned one that spoke, clearly, as the girl next to her turned to say: "I was routing for you!" And only then did Mimi and Angel realise it must have looked rather foolish, the pair of them running down the street like they did. The four of them laughed it off as the bus finally pulled out of the stop, two other girls getting on since Angel and Mimi.

"I'm Joanne, and this is my girlfriend Maureen." The dark-skinned girl smiled, holding her hand out to be shook. Angel found her weirdly formal; Mimi shook it though. "I'm Mimi and this is my cousin Angel. We're new to the US you see, can over from Madrid a couple of weeks ago." Mimi chattered away. Maureen gasped. "I've always wanted to go to Spain! I really want to go to Seville, literally the worlds first Creative City of Music!" Maureen squealed, clapping her hands together. Joanne chuckled. "Yeah, her and our friend Roger have been making plans to go since we were eight." Mimi giggled. "We've been, actually, for Angel's birthday last year. It's a truly beautiful place."

XX~•~•XX

The bus took there around fifteen minutes to get to the school, and finally when it did, the four girls all got off the bus, all giggling and chatting save for Angel, whom Mimi spoke for the whole time. 

"I just had a great idea! Since you guys are completely new here, to the country and everything, how about you come with us the practise rooms before school starts! All our friends are there and you get to meet new people and everything!" Maureen suggested, happily bouncing from foot to foot. "Forgive her, any new people she meets is a chance for her to show off about all the things she's done since birth." Joanne teased. "Of course we'll come with you." Mimi answered before Angel could do anything. Angel herself didn't really want to go and meet a room full of people, she was much more content by herself.

Back in Madrid, Angel had been a street drummer as her parents pressed for her to get an after school job or something like all teenagers had, but none seemed the right fit for her. Drumming though? Drumming was her talent - she was exceptional at it, and was more than happy to bring out a bucket and some drum sticks to just play out on the streets. That was different - she didn't know the people and she was never going to. Actually being with other people? That was scary. Keeping her true self hidden for fear of abuse and abandonment and bullying? Even scarier.

The practise rooms were in the music block on the far side of the school, so Maureen and Joanne gave Mimi and Angel a small tour as they walked through. 

Finally, they reached them, and they all seemed pretty empty. Angel was sort of hoping that meant that their "friends" were only one or two other people. But then noise started coming out from the furthest and the door swung open, revealing a girl with bright red fiery dyed hair, thick black eyeliner and neck barely visible beneath all the chokers.

"April!" Maureen screamed, running towards her, arms swinging around her neck. "I haven't see you since July! You never hung out with us during the holidays - I need an excuse stat!" April laughed heartily, nothing less than Angel expected of a girl who looked like she came straight from some heavy metal rock band. "Sorry Mo, my parents were on my ass all summer about my grades being awful last year and forced me to take summer school and so between that and my daily therapist visits to make sure I wasn't using again... well, let's just say I was a little tied up all summer."

Angel glanced over at Mimi, watching the cringe at the drugs terms. It had taken her a while to get over her own drug addictions, and it wasn't like she was going to seek help from her parents and Angel knew that Mimi still did drugs every now and again, but hearing people talk about it just made that addiction a little harder to ignore.

April looked up and saw Angel and Mimi behind Joanne. "And who are these babies?" She laughed, moving over to hug Joanne slightly, just a small one as it was clear from what Mimi and Angel had learned on the bus that no matter what the circumstances, Joanne was not a big fan of PDA. "They're Mimi and Angel, new from Spain! They're Sophomores, but Joanne and I said we'd help them catch the reins on American civilisation." Maureen bragged jokingly, swinging an arm around Mimi's shoulders. April laughed and looked towards Angel. "Well, I can tell you right now mister, the girls at this school aren't going to leave you alone, that's for certain." She grabbed her arm and pulled her into the practise room, followed by Maureen, Joanne, and Mimi.

Maureen screamed again once in the practise room, Angel and Mimi immediately pushed to the back as the three boys who already occupied the rooms went over to hug Maureen and Joanne. 

"Hey, don't forget to introduce the Spanish babies!" April yelled, arms slipping around Angel's and Mimi's shoulders and she stood between them, quite a bit taller than the both of them. Angel thought how funny it would be if she actually turned up as herself today, April wouldn't have been able to even begin to reach for Angels neck, her heels that large. 

The boys turned around as Maureen clutched onto Angel's arm, the one that wasn't squished up against April's torso. "These are Angel and Mimi, they moved her from Madrid, like, two weeks ago! Joanne and I are helping them get a grip around here, or at least until they make their own friends." Maureen explained cheerfully, the smile she'd been wearing since the bus stop still playing on her mouth. Angel didn't get how anybody could be that happy.

"Nice to meet you guys, I'm Roger. This is Mark and that's Tom, but we call him Collins." The shortest of the three guys said, pointing to his friends in turn as he said their names, though his eyes never left Mimi's. Angel knew she was basking in his attention towards her, had seen the way her eyes had glazed over once they walked in and she'd seen the guy. Angel wished someone would look at her like that.

Collins was cute though, Angel decided. Tall, taller than anyone in the room by far, dark-skin, handsome, facial hair, the works. But Angel was too complicated, that's what her older twin siblings, Mateo and Anita, had said. Boys didn't want complicated, they either wanted a boy or a girl, some wanted both (but in separate bodies, as they'd mentioned repeatedly), but they didn't want someone who was something else. They didn't want to wait to get what they could get in someone else. So no, Angel wasn't going to think about Collins or any other guy, at least, not until she was eighteen and had enough money to pay for a surgery that would make her less complicated, and more herself. Only three more years.

All of a sudden, a sharp bell sounded. "That's our cue, time to go to Form room now. Later losers." April chuckled, pierced tongue sticking out her grinning mouth and middle fingers up on both hands as she walked backwards out the room. Mimi and Angel awkwardly watched as everyone else seemed to just pass it off. Must have been an April thing. 

"Relax, she's not entirely a part of our friendship group. She's only here when she wants to be here, whenever she feels like it and only for Roger. The rest of us do but..." Collins trailed off, shrugging slightly. "Hey, do you guys want to sit with us for break and lunch? We're pretty much guaranteed the best spot thanks to Maureen, and we haven't really gotten to know you in this short amount of time." Mark offered. Once again, without checking with Angel first, agreed, eyes still drawn to Roger.

"What Form room do you guys have? We can take you if you want." Joanne offered, pulling up a school app on her phone. "Maureen and I are in W6." Angel and Mimi pulled up the app on their own phones, having been told about it in the school information leaflet before school started. "L3." Mimi answered, glancing between hers and Angels phones. They hadn't actually looked at the app yet, but thank God they were in the same Form room. "We're in there." Mark grinned. "Not me, I'm in K4." Roger shrugged.

"What are the letters for?" Mimi asked. "Our houses: Larson, Waters, and King." Joanne explained. "For Jonathan Larson, Daniel Waters, and Stephen King." 

"Come on, guys! We'll be late!" Mark exclaimed, leading Angel and Mimi towards their Form room, Collins in tow.

XX~•~•XX

Form was only half an hour, barely any time, and the teacher had let Mimi, Angel, Collins, and Mark all sit together. It was quite fun if Angel was being honest, seemed like a nice open space. There were a lot of LGBTQ+'s in the as well, as she soon founded out. Three lesbian girls, two gay boys, a bisexual girl, and four pansexual boys. One of those boys was Collins.

Timetables had been handed out at the beginning, and thankfully, María had pulled some strings and Mimi and Angel we're together in all classes. Their first was Dance. 

"Hey, that's opposite the gym, I can take you." Collins offered. His eyes lingered on Angel slightly, but it wasn't like she knew. Angel was mostly oblivious when people were into her. 

"Ooh, yes please." Mimi grinned, linking arms with Angel. Collins could only hope they weren't a couple, could only hope they were best friends or maybe even related. They looked similar enough, or maybe that was just because Collins was trying to persuade himself that. Maybe they actually looked completely different.

Maybe Mimi should tell more people than just Maureen and Joanne that she and Angel were cousins. Maybe Angel should tell the others that she's actually a girl. 

Collins smiled politely at Mimi and lead the girls to their class, making innocent small talk along the way. Of course Mimi asked about Roger, and Angel stayed completely quite, but that was ok. They learnt a little about Collins too, like how he had ADHD, but rather than inattentiveness or fidgeting (though they were still there, just mostly unnoticeable and minor) it was mostly the acting without thinking that affected him - the impulsiveness. Angel liked knowing about Collins, made her feel closer to him even if it was a platonic three-way conversation.

"Well, we're here guys. Changing rooms for girls is on that side," He pointed to the left wall with a brown door with the female symbol on it, looking at Mimi, "and for guys is on that side." He pointed directly opposite the first door, the same but for males where his finger landed. His eyes were on Angel. Angel felt sick.

"Thank you so much." Mimi gushed, pulling Angel towards the doors. "No worries, and also someone will be waiting for you outside your next class, I'm sure we'll figure out where it is. We'll try to, anyway." Collins waved I then before going off in his own direction.

"Good luck," Mimi whispered in Angel's ear.

XX~•~•XX

Angel was glad to be in dance uniform and out of the changing rooms as quickly as possible, meeting Mimi almost instantly. They followed their class to a rather large dance studio in the gym block, a tall, lean, female teacher stuck at the front next to a computer. 

"Hello class, it's nice to see your all back again and all healthy. Unlike last year, four students have left this school, but thankfully we've gained two more. Please make them feel welcomed." She pointed to Mimi and Angel before turning on the computer and sorting through her files, pulling up a video of a dance routine onto the projected board across the longest wall.

"Please try your hardest to copy this dance. It's not that hard, and just something fun to get the school year started." The teacher explained, clicking play. It was Problem by Ariana Grande, Angel recognised it from the many many times Mimi had control over the stereo in the car and connected her phone to it. And, just as Angel imagined, a gasp burst from Mimi's mouth.

The dance wasn't that hard, but it wasn't the easiest either. Everyone in the class seemed to do amazing though, including Mimi, but Angel expected no less as she had taken many dance classes before now, and had already signed up for the school dance team online, as well as joining some dance classes here in New York. Angel liked dancing, but it wasn't something she wanted to learn or compete in, she just enjoyed doing it in the moment.

Doing it in the moment wasn't good enough for this class though, Angel discovered, as whispers and giggles floated around the room, all about her. It was clear that though she was good, Angel was not as good as everyone else, and soon enough, some of the whispers came back to her.

Not wanting to hear any more, Angel took this as her time to leave, and sat with her back to the wall at the side. The teacher clearly didn't mind, she wasn't stopping her. Mimi minded though, and Angel was sure that if she wasn't enjoying herself as much as she clearly was than she would have dragged Angel back up to join the class. 

But something changed. By the end of the song, as the teacher was choosing a new file to load up with a new dance and song, it appeared that Mimi was hearing the whispers and giggles for the first time, and did not take it well.

"Miss Márquez! Detention! Lunch time, my office, at the back of the gym block! No one will be starting fights in MY Dance class!"

XX~•~•XX

Rumours from the Dance class had followed Angel and Mimi into their next class, Art, which luckily passed by quickly enough, despite the constant sniggers and pointing that either the teacher didn't see or care enough about. 

Soon enough, it was over, and Joanne was stood waiting for them at the door. "I saw you guys go in, hope you don't mind me waiting out for you." Angel smiled at her as Mimi gave her a "thanks". 

As they began to walk towards the benches outside beside the track field, Joanne asked them about their day so far. "I got detention in first class." Mimi grumbled, pouting. "On your first day? Wow, what did you do? I can probably find a way to get you out of it, I'm kind of known for finding loopholes in the disciplinary rules to get people out of trouble. Mainly Maureen, though. Sometimes Roger and April." Mimi shrugged. "I started a fight, people were making fun of Angel is all." Joanne looked towards Angel anxiously. "I'm not sure how much I can do about a fight, honestly..." She trailed off slightly as they came up to a bench filled with the others - aside from April - who'd Angel and Mimi had met earlier that morning. 

"Hey guys, what we talking about?" Joanne asked, taking a seat next to Maureen and trying to avoid the awkward conversation from before. Angel and Mimi took seats on the other side of Maureen, opposite Roger and Collins. "Ooh, the new drive-in cinema near Mark's house is finally open! They're playing Avengers: Endgame and we were saying that we should all go! Angel and Mimi too - give them a proper New York City welcome." Maureen gushed, speaking quickly with her hands flailing about. "That sounds amazing!" Mimi squealed. "Ugh, I haven't seen that movie in ages since my little brother refuses to let me watch his DVD. This is going to great." Joanne added. Angel nodded along, grinning brightly as Mimi's hands squeezed her arm.

XX~•~•XX

By the end of the next two lessons (both Maths, much to Mimi's dislike), Angel and Mimi were stood together at their lockers, both shaking slightly. 

"Wish me look." Mimi said hesitantly, trying to keep up a big smile for the both of them. Tears danced in Angel's eyes as she pulled Mimi in for a hug. "I'm sorry you got detention because of me." She whispered. Mimi pulled away and placed her hands on the sides of Angel's face. "This is not your fault, sweetie. It was those dicks in our class." And with one last hug, Mimi took off in the direction of the PE office... Angel sprinted into the closest male toilets (she'd had issues with those back in Madrid, no way was she going through that again).

Tears streamed down Angel's face as she hid in one of the stalls, knowing full well how to make it look and sound like she wasn't crying and that she was actually using a cubicle. The sight of the urinals on the way in though made her feel sick. She couldn't believe she'd gotten Mimi into trouble. Mimi had gotten into trouble on their first day because of... her. Angel. All Angels fault. Everything was always Angels fault and though Mimi hadn't quite accepted it yet didn't mean that Angel hadn't. Angel knew full well that it was all on her.

XX~•~•XX

"Hey, have you guys seen Mimi or Angel?" Mark asked as Maureen and Joanne sat down, the last to arrive. "No? I thought they were already here." Maureen said, concerned. "Well, I know Mimi has detention, but I'm not sure where Angel is. Maybe he forgot the way?" Joanne suggested. "We should look for him, the poor guys small and doesn't look like he packs much of a punch, and you know what guys like Benny would do to the fella. Perfect for random bullying for no reason whatsoever." Roger stated. "Yeah, you and the girls go look, Collins and I will stay in case he turns up and he has just gotten lost, as Joanne said." Mark executed the plan, him and Collins waving off Roger and the girls.

It was been twenty minutes before anyone came close to finding anything. They been texting through Whatsapp the whole time: Angel hadn't come back to the bench and Maureen was close to giving up. 

"I need a piss, then I'm coming back to the bench. I give up." Roger sighed on the group video call. The girls agreed - they weren't going to find Angel any time soon and they were just wasting their lunch looking for her. 

However, Roger certainly got a surprise when he recognised one of the straps of Angel's backpack underneath the door to one of the closed cubicles. "Angel?" He asked, knocking his fist on the door. He heard a sniffle on the other side. "Yeah?" A croaky voice called out. Dammit, Angel had been crying - Roger wasn't really sure what to do with that. "Are you ok? You haven't come outside to us." Roger called through the door, glad that they were the only two in the restroom. "I-I'm fine." Angel lied, pulling herself up and unlocking the door. She walked straight past Roger and splashed water from the taps on her face whilst Roger took his piss. 

"Come on, I'll take you to the group." Roger said once he washed his hands, putting one of his arms around Angel's much smaller shoulders. He lead Angel out to where everyone else was - Joanne and Maureen had clearly called time up too. 

"Angel!" Maureen squealed, jumping up and running to him once she noticed her red face. Even though the tear tracks were gone, Angel wasn't a miracle worker: her face was obviously still red. Roger let Angel go to be swarmed by Maureen, sitting back down next to Mark. "Let the kid breath, jeez Maureen." He called out, laughter coming from the others. Maureen took Angel's hand and sat her between herself and Joanne. 

Throughout the rest of lunch, Angel only spoke through Joanne, who was more than happy to be for voice as it meant she actually joined in on the conversation. Of course, it still hurt that Angel's new... friends? Acquaintances? Pityers? Called her "him" and "he" and "lad" and "mate" but it was something she could work around. They couldn't know, not if Angel wanted to have a better life than she had in Madrid. 

Finally, lunch was over. Time for the last lesson of the day. Angel didn’t intend for the mini heart attack she got once everyone left her alone in the hallways, having their own classes to go to, but it couldn’t be avoided. She felt a nauseating void fill up around her full of students talking and laughing and whispering and completely in her element as she stood to the side, trying to take grasp of some sort of object, some sort of consistency which would stop her from being pulled with the flow.

Finding the classroom wasn’t that hard, it was in the same block as the practise rooms, and luckily Mimi was already there. 

It was the lesson that was the hard part. 

“Alright students, last year I set a summer assignment: prepare a duet for your first lesson back. Whilst I am aware that few of you weren’t enrolled here last year, I still expect the work to be completed to full standard. So, can anyone who is not prepared - and if any students from last year say they are not, marks will be deducted - go into the practise rooms to prepare, and the rest of us can start watching the performances.” Miss Levithan explained after completing the register. So far, she was Angel and Mimi’s worst teacher. She was the strictest.

Angel and Mimi wandered into the furthest practise room as Mimi pulled up songs from her Amazon Music app on her phone. After flicking through about fifteen of them, they settled for Everything Has Changed by Taylor Swift and featuring Ed Sheeran. 

“This sounds amazing!” Mimi squealed after recording it on her phone. Angel chuckled. “I’m not sure, I still say my voice is too high...” “Baby girl, it sounds perfect. We both sound perfect, and trust me, no one will be saying anything about your voice if I have anything to say about it.” There was a fire birthed straight from the ferocity and anger in Mimi’s eyes glowing red towards Angel. “You’ve already proved as much.” Angel giggled. 

Walking back to the classroom once all the preparing diets were called back, Angel’s heart began to palpitate ten times to the dozen. Sweat beads began to form at her hair line; her legs began shaking. The anxiety stemming from all previous abuse and bullying came swelling back up again into her gut, and she couldn’t contain it. Angel ran.


End file.
